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Research Paper | Energy Engineering | South Africa | Volume 9 Issue 12, December 2020

Performance Enhancement of Lead Acid Batteries using Different Surface Areas of Carbon Additives on the Negative Plate

Jagannathan Punjabkesar | Heinrich Coetzer | Kelvin Nalan Naidoo | S. P. Daniel Chowdhury

Abstract: In a lead acid battery, the negative active material isthe spongy lead and the positive active material isthe lead dioxide. Carbon materials are widely used in the negative active material to improve the lifecycleand alsoto increase the charge acceptance of the battery. Carbon material helpsin reducing the hard sulphation of the negative plate during cycling over a period of time. In this study, negative plates were made with different carbons having different surface areas. The following four readily available carbons were selected for the experiments: a) Graphene with a surface area of 300 m2/g b) Activated carbon with a high surface area of 1400m2/g c) Activated carbon with a medium surface area of 800 m2/g d) Conductive carbon with a surface area of 89 m2/g e) The negative plates were made with these four types of carbon (0.15 %) which were added individually in addition to the existing (0.15 %) carbon black (Surface area 40 m2/g). The results of the carbon combinations on the negative plate were compared with those of the standard negative plates without additional carbon. . A comparison table along with spider plots were made to determine the best carbon combination for African weather conditions.

Keywords: Negative plate, Active material, Lead acid battery, Carbon additives, Surface area, Dynamic charge acceptance, Life cycle, Water loss, Automotive battery

Edition: Volume 9 Issue 12, December 2020,

Pages: 71 - 84